In February 1587, the burgh of Jedburgh became the site of a justice court convened by the Earl of Angus, a local magnate exerting judicial authority within the Roxburghshire region. Among those summoned to answer charges of witchcraft in this administrative context was Helene Elliot. Her case, documented under reference C/EGD/833, reflects the specific jurisdictional landscape of late 16th-century Scotland, where the regional nobility often presided over serious criminal inquiries with relatively little intervention or oversight from the central Scottish authorities.
However, the trial records (T/LA/89) reveal that the proceedings concerning Helene never reached a full hearing in the presence of the accused. She was officially noted in the court registers as having failed to appear, meaning she was absent from the justice court when her name was called. Because she did not show up for her trial, the archival record provides no further details regarding the specific accusations brought against her, leaving the narrative of her legal encounter fixed solely on this recorded non-appearance before the Earl of Angus.